Best Chart of Accounts Structure for Tracking Fixed Assets and Depreciation?

How would you feel about x1 Depreciation Expense Parent account and use Sub Accounts for the various assets / categories / classes?

Cheers,

 - Alan

Summary vs. detail accounts in QB are personal preference for how you want to see on reports.

I look at Trial Balance report for almost everything since I want to see all accounts on one page. Summary accounts just make the report longer and redundant from my view, but if you provide reports to others outside of accounting, they might prefer to see the summary level reports. 

How and where you FA detail and compute depreciation is what I would consider for how to decide.  If your CPA computes for you annually for books and taxes or if you do manually and what level of detail is on those reports since no need for redundant detail if one is reliable. 

Hassle to avoid is when you sell or dispose of asset, want to easily see NBV to write off books.

Generally FA system shows line for each asset, so on books, I would just show asset categories, but I do like to see if by category most is depreciated or not and use that for budgeting and to estimate depreciation (by cost pools in my industry), but similar to Classes in QB for the split.  Again, this is just my personal preference, since you tend to have preferences after 3 decades!

However, I must mention that most of my clients have almost no fixed assets since we use GAAP minimum of $5000 for most or IRS Safe Harbor minimum of $2500 for my smaller clients and me, but of course when I was W-2 employee for much larger companies saw way more FA.

What I see on small biz is some CPA's capitalizing items as low as $100, which is so crazy to me.

QuickBooks Desktop Pro 2018

If you enter all fixed assets in the Chart of Accounts using the parent account and two fixed asset type accounts as sub accounts, what of the Fixed Asset Item List?

Is there any point in filling in the Fixed Asset Item List if you list the assets in the Chart of Accounts?

Are there problems if you duplicate and enter assets in both places?

Any help appreciated. 

Hello there, Bobby Chiggins.

Let me bring clarifications to your concern about entering fixed assets in QuickBooks Desktop.

When you enter two fixed asset type accounts as sub accounts using one parent account, you'll need to create a separate Fixed Asset Item for each of these sub accounts in QuickBooks.

Also, filling in the Fixed Asset Item List is highly recommended for it contains a detailed information that you may need for future tracking purposes.

Lastly, there shouldn't be any problem if you enter these assets in both Chart of Accounts and Fixed Asset Item List as long as you choose the correct Asset Account used in both places.

If there's anything else I can further help, please let me know. It's always my pleasure to assist.

So there is no way to only input one time, like to the FA listing and have that flow into GL based on assigning GL account number to FA when input?  Dual data entry sucks for sure.

Hi there,

I use this same method and was wondering how you add maintenance and repair costs using this system. I need to track what is being spent on equipment. Any advice would be helpful.

Hi sunsetranch,

You can create an expense account and use it when recording your maintenance and repair cost. Let me walk you through how.

1. Press CTRL+A.
2. Click the Account drop-down.
3. Click New. Then, click the Expense radio-button.
4. Click Continue.
5. Follow the steps that will guide you through the rest.
6. Click Save & Close.

Once done, use that account when creating an expense transaction.

You can read this article for your reference: Expenses and vendors.

Let us know if you need help with anything else. The Community is here to help.

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@ShiellaGraceA wrote:

Hi sunsetranch,

 

You can create an expense account and use it when recording your maintenance and repair cost. Let me walk you through how.

1. Press CTRL+A.
2. Click the Account drop-down.
3. Click New. Then, click the Expense radio-button.
4. Click Continue.
5. Follow the steps that will guide you through the rest.
6. Click Save & Close.

Once done, use that account when creating an expense transaction.

 

You can read this article for your reference: Expenses and vendors.

 

Let us know if you need help with anything else. The Community is here to help.

---

It's great to hear again from you, @sunsetranch.

Yes, I can guide you in creating an expense account. Let's get started!

1. Go to the Lists menu.
2. Choose Chart of Accounts.
3. Click the Plus Icon (+).
4. Select Expense account.
5. Enter the account details.
6. Click Ok.

To learn more about managing your chart of accounts, you may refer to this article: Your Chart of Accounts (Go to page 45.)

Let me know if you have other questions. I'm always here to help.

Let me give back ground first: I have a new tax client that uses QB Enterprise 2018. When I was reconciling the book depreciation schedule and from tax software to their balance sheet, I found discrepancies.

When I called the client's bookkeeper she showed me that she had the missing assets I was looking for plus a whole lot more, in the fixed asset list. The problem is they are not flowing to the chart of accounts.

Finally the question: How do I set them up so that they show up in both areas?

Thanks in advance for your help.

It might be these assets are inactivated, Renee D.

We'll have to activate them. This way, these accounts will show in the list and the reports. Here's how:

1. Click Lists.
2. Go to Fixed Asset Item List.
3. Tick the Include inactive box.
4. Click the x icon to activate the fixed asset.

Although, if they're already deleted, you'll have to recreate them. Here's how:

1. Click Item in the Fixed Asset Item List window.
2. Select New.
3. Fill in the necessary fields.
4. Click OK.

You can get back to this thread after trying the recommended steps. We'll be right here to help you.

Thank you for the suggestion,

Will they then show up on the balance sheet?

Thank you for getting back here in the Community, @Renee D.

I'll appreciate you performing the steps provided by Kristine Mae. 

Yes, Fixed assets most usually appear on the balance sheet. Wherein a balance sheet is a financial statement that reports the company's assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific point in time. 

Moreover, a fixed asset item list is used to records the details of which assets you own like property, plant, and equipment. 

Also, I'll be adding this article that you can read through to learn more about tracking your fixed assets using the Fixed Asset Manager (FAM): Use Fixed Asset Manager in QuickBooks Desktop

Feel free to leave a reply below if you have additional questions about assets. I'm always here to help you. Stay safe and take care always, Renee D. 

I seem to be having some issue with the sub accounts I created and mapped correctly to the parent account in that the parent account is not automatically totaling all the sub accounts, any thoughts.  I've called and spoke to QB support 7 times and NOONE is able to help with this.  I've also been using QB for a very long time and have set up numerous subaccounts and they always automatically totaled in the parent account.

I can see how this worries you, @WMHCP.

Allow me to share more details about getting the total amount of the sub-accounts to the parent account in the Banking page.

QuickBooks rely on the statistic balance given by your bank. You may want to check your bank's setup for the sub-accounts. If the transactions download to one account, connect only the parent account. However, if the transactions download to the individual accounts, connect the subaccounts and not the parent account. 

That being said, I'd recommend contacting your bank to see how they set up the sub-accounts and the parent accounts.

If you're referring to QuickBooks Desktop version, it applies the same especially when your bank is connected to QuickBooks in the Banking.

However, if you're account isn't connected to your bank and you're not able to see the total amount for the sub-accounts, I'd suggest updating your program. This will remove some unwanted issues. For more information about the troubleshooting steps, you can check out this article: Repair your QuickBooks Desktop for Windows.

To know about sub-accounts, you can review these articles which also contains sub-articles that can be handy in the future, such as manually adding bank transactions to your register and how to reconcile.

• For QuickBooks Online: About bank or credit card subaccount setup. 
• For QuickBooks Dekstop: Create, edit, or delete account in QuickBooks Desktop.

You may want to check out these articles about tracking your business financials:

• For QuickBooks Online: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.
• For QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports.

These references will give you tips on how to customize and manage your payroll reports.

Please don't hesitate to let me know in the comment section below if you have other questions or concerns. I'd be happy to assist you further. Take care always.

I am not using QB online!  I am using Desktop Premier Plus as such I do not have any credit card or bank feeds linked to my accounts.